Agenda item

Councillor Cowling, the Leader of the Council, presented the following statement:

"It is only 5 weeks since our last full council meeting - so I don't have a lot to report to you.

All the outside meetings I have attended have been around the subject of housing - the LGNY&Y Housing Board and Forum. Steve and I also attended a conference on rural housing.

It is increasingly clear that there is funding out there to aid the delivery of an increased supply of new homes, we just have to be ready to grasp the opportunities.

The new buzz word is community led housing. Funding for CLH is being made available, particularly in rural and coastal villages and small towns that have a high proportion of second homes. Work is ongoing to encourage communities to take up this opportunity. so I have asked Peter Duncan, who works for the consultants promoting this concept, if he would attend our Parish Liaison Meeting on the 19th October. I am pleased to say he has confirmed he can come to Ryedale - so I would be very grateful if you could encourage the parishes that you represent to attend that meeting.

At the conference and at the LGNY&Y meeting, building firms both large and small told us of the frustrations they face in being able to deliver new build housing. The problems range from lenders being unwilling to fund development, lack of skilled labour, the intricacies of the planning system and not least the cost added to open market housing by the provision of affordable homes.

I would like to remind you that in two weeks time we shall be in the middle of our Local Government Association Corporate Peer Challenge (information sent out to you on the 28th September) and we shall be looking forward to the preliminary findings of the Peer Challenge. All Members are invited to the feedback session on Friday the 21st of October at 1pm. It would be good to see as many of you as possible there.

Tonight on our agenda we are being asked to agree a policy for our property assets. Our O&S committee have provided us with an excellent piece of background work to help us make that decision.

Lastly, when we get to item 12 - the Shale Wealth Fund Consultation - I hope we shall not start reliving the debate about fracking. We need to concentrate on giving relevant responses to the consultation."

The following questions were received on the Leader’s Statement:

1.    From Councillor Burr

"Tonight we're being asked to agree a policy for our property assets and this work has been done extremely quickly. Could the Leader tell me why a motion from Councillor Andrews and myself put forward to have more pumps around Brawby and Malton/Norton re: flooding has not even come back to Full Council as yet?  It's 12 weeks to the end of December and last December we suffered severe flooding. What if this happens again? Don't you think we've let our residents down and not progressed this piece of work quickly enough?"

The Leader replied:

"No, I'm absolutely certain that we haven't let our residents down. It would have been silly to have charged headlong into a very isolated piece of work. What we decided as a Council to do was to review the flooding situation as a whole in Ryedale and that piece of work is nearing completion as I'm sure you already know. We will be able to make a sensible decision that gives us the best results for the whole of Ryedale."

2.    From Councillor Paul Andrews

"Perhaps Councillor Cowling would elaborate on that explanation because I understood that the general situation regarding flooding in Ryedale was being dealt with on a quarterly basis with ongoing discussions between all the relevant authorities, including this authority, at the Drainage Liaison Group. I can't remember the Council ever deciding that our motion should be widened in the way in which she says it has been widened. I am aware that the Scrutiny Committee in their infinite wisdom decided to do that but it was not the decision of this Council. So I would like to know why it is that her group has used these delaying tactics in order to put back consideration of a motion which we put forward in January or February and which the whole Council accepted was urgent and was on a very limited front in regard to pumps only?"

The Leader replied:

"I think it is quite a ridiculous thing to say that my group has used delaying tactics - they most certainly haven't and also if I can refer back Lindsay to your saying that we're coming up to December when the flooding happened again. I think we're all well aware of that. But can I also remind you that some of the worst flooding we've had in Ryedale was in June, not in December, so it doesn't matter what time of year it is - it can flood at any time of year. If we're going to spend public money on flood prevention and alleviation in Ryedale, it has to be a considered decision and it has to be the right decision for the whole of Ryedale. As somebody who suffers personally from a property that floods, do you really think that I would condone any delays in spending this money for the benefit of the rest of Ryedale?"

3.    From Councillor Ives

"At the Policy and Resources Committee it was agreed that this Council would fund a feasibility study into improving congestion at the railway crossing in Malton and Norton, which is urgently needed as the number of trains will double in 2018. Does the Council agree with me that Councillor Burr's delaying tactic in April which pushed back that feasibility study for several months is going to create additional pressure when we've already got a very tight deadline to meet?"

The Leader replied:

"Yes, I would agree that that was absolutely appalling to delay that. I think we're all well aware how difficult the situation is there and what damage is being done, the pollution that's being caused. I'll take this opportunity to say this again,  I'm very disappointed with what North Yorkshire County Council is proposing. We need that weight limit and we need it implementing soon."

4.    From Councillor Raper

            "Recently Leeds City Council has been criticised, I don't know if the criticism is justified, for too many houses proposed to be built. There's         evidence apparently that they're trying to build too many houses. Are   we going to suffer such a similar criticism?"

The Leader replied:

            "That absolutely wouldn't happen in Ryedale. We have a housing - it's         called SHMA and I can never remember what it stands for - which            quantifies our housing needs. What we do need is affordable housing   and that is where a lot of the government money is aimed at the         moment. The Conservatives are very keen to support the delivery of             affordable homes, particularly in rural areas."

5.    From Councillor Paul Andrews

"The question I have relates to the third paragraph of her statement which is talking about rural housing and making land available for building rural housing. This is a very welcome statement and music to my ears. What I don't understand is how this is consistent with the district plan which prescribes and imposes 90% of all new housing on the towns in, what I have always said to this Council, a most unfair way.  Perhaps you could explain that and following that she could also explain how it is that small builders find themselves in the state that they have done, where they have no sites for small building because this Council has followed a deliberate policy of insisting that all new building should be big estates which only big builders can carry out?"

The Leader replied:

"I can't say that the ruling group really imposed the Plan on Malton. I think it was an informed decision made in the light of Malton being the capital town of Ryedale. It has the rail connections, it has the road connections, it has public transport connections. It's quite obvious that Malton is the most sustainable place for development in Ryedale. As for you saying where will the land come from in the rural areas, I think you know enough about planning to know that exception sites can provide windfall sites in the villages. If Members as a whole aren't happy with the policies that we have in the local plan on rural sites, non service villages etc, then it's for you to make that known and do something about it. Quite a number of councils are doing that now. Probably that explains to you about the lack of sites - the second part of your question."